Chapter 137

I got a call from Hiromi.

 

*Hey Hiromi! What’s up?*

 

*Motoko! I did it! I got us a gig to get supplies! You are going to love this!* Hiromi practically squealed into the phone as I pushed myself away from the workbench to focus on the call.

 

*Okay, hit me.*

 

*Okay so, I was talking to my Dad, and he mentioned there had been an AV carrying supplies shot down. I think you can figure it out from there?*

 

*Oh easily. Arasaka doesn’t care so much for the supplies just wants to send a message?*

*Ehhhh. Dad does want some of the supplies returned, there was some data he would like to retrieve if you catch my drift. But trust me, I negotiated really really hard! Papa was so proud! We will walk away with loads of equipment.*

 

*Alright. What do we know? Do we know where the supplies are now?*

 

*That’s… The problem. No, not exactly. It was definitely some nomads, the attack happened in the badlands but whether it’s nomads, or Wraith Arasaka doesn’t know. That’s for us to find out basically.*

 

*Hmm… You didn’t already confirm our participation right?*

 

*No way! We have a contract that we negotiated but it’s unsigned, I wanted to run it past you first to make sure it’s even possible.* Hiromi trailed off. *I’m pretty confident, but you are the one who has to do it.*

 

*Hiromi, you’re perfect. Send me what data you have okay? I’m going to call Saul and make sure it wasn’t the Aldecaldos. If it wasn’t that narrows it down, and he might even know who took it.*

*Alright, I have the info, sending now.*

 

I checked over the text. The supplies were taken out of a downed AV all men had been killed, and by the time Arasaka had sent a second AV to check it out everyone on board was dead, and the stuff was taken. This happened last week, and so far Arasaka hadn’t dedicated any resources to handle the problem.

 

*And your dad, he’s responsible for finding the shipment? I just want to know in case we refuse, we wouldn’t be screwing him over right?*

 

*Nope. Dad is the one who is in charge of the guy that was responsible for it. That guy is… Well Dad just mentioned he was no longer a problem, he might have been responsible for leaking the flight plan, willingly or not.*

 

*Okay. Give me a few minutes and I’ll call you right back. Can you get Ichi and Malcolm? We should all discuss this.*

 

*Hehe! You got it, leave it all to your fixer Hiromi-chan!*

 

I just laughed at how cute Hiromi had tried to sound, but hung up a moment after and made the call to Saul.

 

*Ringing.*

 

*Ringing.*

 

*Ringing.*

 

*This is Saul.*

 

*Saul, it’s Motoko. Do you have a moment to talk? Business.* I added at the end.

 

*Hmm. Sure, what’s going on?*

 

*Let’s just say I’m looking at a contract to hunt down someone that downed an Arasaka AV last week. Current assumption is some Nomad group. I just want to make sure I’m not going to be hunting people I actually like… If I take this, I won’t be hunting down you, or your family… Right?*

 

The line was quiet for a moment, but Saul spoke up a moment after clearly.

 

*Normally I wouldn’t want to answer that sort of question, but in this case, it wasn’t us, so I don’t have to beat around the bush and pretend. We don’t go after corp AV’s unless it’s on contract, and we haven’t poked any corps in a while. Much less Arasaka. Sounds like a Wraith group. Probably on contract by Militech.*

 

*I assumed it was a counter corp thing, glad to hear it isn’t you guys. Sounds like I’ll be running around the badlands in the next few days. Maybe I’ll stop by and say hi. Maybe with more Wraith vehicles that might need new owners.* I offered.

 

*Tell you what Kid. You’ve been square with us, and I do appreciate the call to make sure you aren’t taking a contract on my family. I don’t think we have much need for more vehicles, but I’ll contact Dakota for you. She’ll likely give you a call, might even have some information that might narrow your target down a bit. If I know Dakota, she’ll take a chunk off from the vehicles if you can supply them in payment.*

 

*That would be perfect. Thanks Saul. I really appreciate it!*

 

*No problem kid. Good hunting.*

 

*Thanks!*

 

I quickly ended the call and pushed my chair away from my workbench so I could give myself enough space to quickly spin myself around as I giggled at kicked my feet.

 

“New gig! New gig!”

 

—–

 

“Welcome to the Section 9 pre-mission debrief!” I called out as Malcolm finally arrived and I handed him his favorite Ni-Cola and ushered him inside the apartment.

 

“Thanks?” He questioned looking around but Hiromi just waved at him lazily from the couch, her face still buried in a laptop she had brought with.

 

“Don’t mind Motoko, she is just excited.”

 

“Hey! I’m not excited… I’m super duper excited!” I called out happily, and I was.

 

A nomad group wouldn’t just be a couple dudes in an apartment. This would take actual work to plan out, I would have to go in full ninja mode, and murder potentially dozens of bad guys!

 

So much XP! So much loot! I would actually have my team with me to loot the place! Sure the Arasaka Helmet was only mid, but their armor was good, and so we would definitely end up with weapons, and armor for my team!

 

We would look so fucking cool after!

 

“Alright settle down.“ Hiromi demanded pointing mostly at me. “Here is what we know, and it isn’t much. Thanks to Motoko knowing the Aldecaldo leader I got in contact with Dakota Smith, she’s one of the big fixers in the Badlands. And we got some potential targets for who took the shipment, but nothing concrete.”

 

“The Badlands is pretty big.” Malcolm sort of pointed out slowly. “Are we even going to find these gonks? I mean we can’t do Motoko’s Camera trick out there.”

 

“True, but we have all the data Arasaka has, and more importantly. We know who didn’t take it.” Hiromi added, and she turned to me, I threw her a thumbs up.

 

“We got some stuff to go on. Dakota was kind enough to give us some data in exchange, for a lump payment now, which will be returned to us if and when we sell off the suspected Raffen Shiv vehicles we are probably going to come into ownership of soon.”

 

“Oh! I want one!” Malcolm called out and Ichi slapped him on the back of his head.

 

“You already have two cars, you gonk.”

“Nah. The Archer was stolen by my mom. She always wanted her own car, and I can’t exactly drive my baby to the grocery store!” He argued, waving his hands as if that would emphasize his point. It honestly only made me laugh all the harder.

 

“This gonk! He spent all his eddies on a car he can’t even use!” I cackled and Malcolm grabbed an empty Ni-Cola can and chucked it at me, but my ninja reflexes were too strong!

 

I managed to bat it away and smile widely at him.

 

“I can so use it! I just don’t want to drive it around to places it could get targeted, or get me targeted.”

 

“So you can’t use it.” I mumbled under my breath quietly enough that everyone heard it.

 

“Let’s focus back up you gonks.” Hiromi demanded poking me in the side to get me to stop messing with Malcolm

 

“We will obviously need some actual on the ground scouting this time, but that’s gonna be super dangerous. Thankfully Motoko’s wheels are already made for the badlands so we got that. Ichi Malcolm and I will drive together in his van to Dakota’s garage. She agreed to let us set up there as long as we don’t drag any trouble there, so we have a staging ground.”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

 

“While I hit the locations we think might have the loot!” I burst out unable to contain myself.

 

I would probably have to hit multiple Raffen bases!

 

I shivered and didn’t discretely wipe my mouth at the idea of all the XP! Definitely not!

 

“Right. Motoko will go out scouting, but that’s going to take a while. The Raffen will often have security around the camps in case someone is driving up on them, which means getting a mile or so off and walking… Motoko?”

“Easy. I got good boots, and I’ll bring lots of water in the car.” I waved off the concern. Seriously these city kids! As if walking a mile in a desert was that tough. I had done it before even and I was way more beat up then! And there had been a sandstorm!

 

“So that’s the idea. Motoko hits the locations, clears them out, we find our target, and Ichi moves in to remove it.”

 

“What about the places Motoko scouts that aren’t the target?” Malcolm asked, once again proving he was my swiftly shooting up the favorite charts. “Like what about all that loot that will be left behind?”

 

Hiromi fumbled for a minute and looked to me.

 

I just shrugged. “We should expect this could take a while, days maybe. So if I clear a place you guys move in, we loot up and leave. Run the idea past Dakota I guess. She’ll probably take the loot, or know where we could offload it… Or she’ll refuse cause it’ll bring a lot of heat. Who knows.”

“Okay. I’ll run the idea past Dakota after this meeting. For now Malcolm we will loot it up, or if Dakota says it will bring too much heat… We can just sell the info. The Aldecaldos would be happy to loot it in our place.” Hiromi muttered I could tell the way she said it that she liked the idea.

 

“I’m okay with that. It’s gonna be hot out there.” Ichi offered, but Malcolm was a true loot goblin and glared at both of them. Our eyes met.

 

Yes, my choom. The loot shall be ours.

 

We nodded silently. Compact complete.

 

“Oh! Malcolm, take my HMG too. That way you guys will have a lot of protection between Ichi’s turret, and you backing him up.”

“Oooh.” Malcolm gave me a sinister smile, which I returned.

 

“Okay you maniacs, we do have another problem. Please turn your eyes to Arasaka’s only information on the attackers.” Hiromi demanded, and turned her laptop around, where there was a small text log.

 

It was transcribed from the pilot, and I frowned deeply at what I read.

 

“That’s going to be a problem.” Ichi offered, but Malcolm jumped in instantly after.

 

“I want it! Dibs!”

“Fuck!” I cursed, because the idea of a vehicle with a Rocket Launcher on top was pretty rad. Like… At least as cool as my Black Quadra.

 

“I really don’t think you need a rocket launcher equipped vehicle, Malcolm.” Hiromi tried to argue, but I actually considered it and shook my head.

 

“Actually. If we gathered a few armed vehicles like that, and stored them for emergencies… that’s not a bad idea. We might take gigs where we have to hit AV’s or need to take out an armored transport. Having something like that in storage isn’t a bad idea.”

 

Hiromi looked like she was going to argue but her shoulders slumped. “That’s true.”

“Yes!” Malcolm fist pumped because that meant we were definitely taking heavily weaponized vehicles for ourselves.

 

“Okay but back to the point. That thing is super dangerous. What do we do?”

“We infiltrate their camp and kill them before they get a chance to get in their rides.” I offered with a shrug. “I’ll just have to be super careful if any of the thieves manage to get into their vehicles that could be pretty dangerous.” It made me consider whether I needed to bring my Uragan, but that might be overkill.

 

Nekomata should punch through the armor pretty well, and at close range and not standing on top of a moving vehicle, I should be able to hit the driver.

 

“Alright! Let’s get everything we need sorted out tonight, and we can head out in the morning to Dakota’s garage!” Hiromi called out clapping her hands to refocus us all. “We will have a mission budget, so run things through me, and we can get everything sorted out!”

“Don’t forget to bring lots of water!” I added looking at my chooms who all rolled their eyes at me.

 

—–

 

The next morning we all met up at Hiromi’s parking garage, and Hiromi dropped a new issue on our heads.